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Sabbatical and Other Leaves

The objective of a sabbatical leave is to increase the faculty member’s value to the College and thereby improve and enrich its programs. Sabbatical leaves are for the purposes of planned travel, study, formal education, research, writing, or other experience of professional value; they are not regarded as a reward for service nor as a vacation or rest period occurring automatically at stated intervals.

The following faculty were approved for sabbatical leave during the 2025-2026 academic year.

• Isidro Bosch, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Completion of Manuscripts and Field/Lab Study of Sea Star Larvae
• Samuel Fallon, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of English and Creative Writing, One of a Kind: Character and Abstraction from Spenser to Milton
• Colleen Garrity, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Geological, Environmental, & Planetary Sciences, Finger Lakes Terroir Project
• Sedar Ngoma, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Python Programming book and an inverse source problem
• Paul Schacht, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of English & Creative Writing, Encoding and Visualizing Revision Narratives for Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”

Spring 2026

• Ming Lei, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Communication, Are your emotions helping you or not? – Well, a good question in general, but the context here is health communication
• William Lofquist, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Sociology, To and From Bellefonte: An Innocent Man, an Unsolved Murder, and the Man in the Shadows
• Ruel McKnight, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, NSF Grant Proposals for Research Instrumentation, Course Advancement Autonomy & Submission of Manuscripts for Publication
• Caroline Woidat, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of English, and Center for Social Justice Studies, Recovering American Women’s Anti-Prison Literature
• Thea Yurkewecz-Stellato, School of Education, Specialized Literacy Professionals’ Use of Research Evidence in Western New York

The following faculty have been approved for sabbatical leave during the 2026-2027 academic year.

Fall 2026

• Chris Annala, School of Business, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: An Evaluation and Comparison
• Kristi Hannam, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Freshwater Acoustic Ecology: Listening to Underwater Life

• Hanna Brant, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Political Science & International Relations, Queering Candidacy: Queer Women’s Representation in US State Legislatures
• Dori Farthing, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Geological, Environmental, & Planetary Sciences, A geological, environmental, and historical investigation of slag and iron smelting at Port Leyden, NY
• Carlo Filice, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Philosophy, What are the ethics of Jesus, and can they be defended philosophically?
• Claire Gravelin, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Psychology, Tracking Subtle Bias: Measuring Implicit Victim Blaming in Rape
• Amanda Lewis-Nang’ea, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of History, The Government’s Cattle: Livestock, Wildlife, and Development in Kenya
• Ling Ma, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of History, Monograph project: Reproductive Health and Death in Early 20th-centure China
• Kevin Militello, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Studying Bacterial DNA Methylation Using Methylation Inhibitors
• Olaocha Nwabara, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of English & Creative Writing, New Routes to the African Diaspora: Locating “Naija” Identities in Transnational Cultural Productions

The provides funds to help employees prepare for permanent or continuing appointments. Preference is given to employees who are underrepresented based on their protected class status. The program also seeks to promote diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity for specific employees in a department, unit, or program that can demonstrate that they are under-represented in that department, program, or unit.

The following faculty were awarded a Drescher Leave by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion NYS/UUP Joint Labor-Management Committee:

• Whitney Brown, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Emotion Regulation Abilities, Repertoire, and Substance Use

• Bruno Renero-Hannan, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Anthropology, Zapotec Political Prisoners, Violence, and Testimony in Oaxaca
• Tara Sweet, School of Arts & Sciences, Departments of Biology and Psychology & Neuroscience, Evaluating the molecular function of zebrafish Anoctamin 1

• Ashley Watson, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Communication, Manuscript

The Fulbright Scholar Program is one of the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange programs in the world and is open to faculty and professionals at all stages of their careers, including retirement. The program, which supports activities and projects that promote the relationship between educational exchange and international understanding, provides grants to support research or teaching in a participating country for a set duration of time (often the equivalent of one academic semester or a full academic year).

The following faculty received a 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award:

• Intekhab (Ian) Alam, School of Business, College of Economics and Political Science at Sultan Qaboos University on the capital city of Muscat, Oman

• Thomas Osburn, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College Dublin (UCD) in Dublin, Ireland

• Division of Academic Affairs